Have anyone tried extended fasting after eating primal for a while?

I am a little interested in trying extended periods of complete fasting (several days+) with no food intake besides water. As a disclaimer, this is NOT an attempt to lose weight, nor something I do to 'become more healthy because this or that health guru told me so' but solely for my own spiritual reasons. I've heard testimonials of people who stop being hungry after a few highly unpleasant days of not eating, and who instead experience heightened senses, and a peaceful, almost meditative state of mind until the fast is broken. This is something I want to experience myself (and I'd also like to know what my body is capable of when deprived of food. I'm somewhat of a prepper, so this is highly interesting to me.) No moral preaching of how I'm harming my body here, please. That is not the goal, and likely not the result either. Grok had to be able to handle periods of utter starvation.

I am curious to whether others here have ever attempted this. The people I know who have tried have not been on primal, and as far as I know, there are no studies on primal people fasting for a long time. I would guess that breaking into the fast would be much easier if I started while already running in ketosis mode. Anybody ever tried that? On a whole, I'm really interested in whether or not anyone here have attempted long periods of fasting before and after turning to primal, and who can compare the results.

Longest fast I've done has only been 36 hours, the second twelve were the hardest, after that it was easy. I've done it several times and when I broke the fast, I really wasn't even that hungry. But this isn't what you're asking, you want to go long term, so for what it's worth...

I have a friend, he and his wife fast once a year for religious reasons. Their fast goes on for 21 days, water only. They don't struggle after the first few days. I've talked to them about it and they say it's pretty easy, you just forget about food. I don't think I'd try it, although I'll admit I find it intriguing. I wonder if their fast would be easier for them if they were primal eaters, I imagine the first few days the insulin and blood sugar levels play hell on them now.

I am a little interested in trying extended periods of complete fasting (several days+) with no food intake besides water. As a disclaimer, this is NOT an attempt to lose weight, nor something I do to 'become more healthy because this or that health guru told me so' but solely for my own spiritual reasons. I've heard testimonials of people who stop being hungry after a few highly unpleasant days of not eating, and who instead experience heightened senses, and a peaceful, almost meditative state of mind until the fast is broken. This is something I want to experience myself (and I'd also like to know what my body is capable of when deprived of food. I'm somewhat of a prepper, so this is highly interesting to me.) No moral preaching of how I'm harming my body here, please. That is not the goal, and likely not the result either. Grok had to be able to handle periods of utter starvation.

I am curious to whether others here have ever attempted this. The people I know who have tried have not been on primal, and as far as I know, there are no studies on primal people fasting for a long time. I would guess that breaking into the fast would be much easier if I started while already running in ketosis mode. Anybody ever tried that? On a whole, I'm really interested in whether or not anyone here have attempted long periods of fasting before and after turning to primal, and who can compare the results.

When I've gone on Juice fasts for weeks on end, what sometimes happens is ~ (I would imagine it would happen to you a lot quicker with just water) ~ about day three or four I do get this Buddha-like, vaguely blissed out feeling, almost like floating.

But also, you can get feelings of being "hollow", dizzy, and hitting a solid wall of exhaustion where your sleep is very heavy.

Then it's kind of cool to note you bodily sensations, how it reacts to eating/swallowing real food.

Also, your poos get interesting. I want to go on an apple juice fast because all that malic acid eventually (painlessly) releases gallstones. I want to see what they look like LOL!

I have a friend, he and his wife fast once a year for religious reasons. Their fast goes on for 21 days, water only. They don't struggle after the first few days. I've talked to them about it and they say it's pretty easy, you just forget about food. I don't think I'd try it, although I'll admit I find it intriguing. I wonder if their fast would be easier for them if they were primal eaters, I imagine the first few days the insulin and blood sugar levels play hell on them now.

21 days? That's pretty damn impressive. The guys I've talked to went on for a week to ten days or so. They described that 'forgot about food' feeling, but by that point they started to get hungry again so they broke their fast there.

How well do your friends function on their fasts? Do they still go to work and such, or do they have to take a vacation for the fast? I imagine they have to get pretty tired after a while..?

Originally Posted by accidentalpancake

Sounds like delirium.

Possibly. I still wanna try it though!

Originally Posted by Psychicsinlove

When I've gone on Juice fasts for weeks on end, what sometimes happens is ~ (I would imagine it would happen to you a lot quicker with just water) ~ about day three or four I do get this Buddha-like, vaguely blissed out feeling, almost like floating.

But also, you can get feelings of being "hollow", dizzy, and hitting a solid wall of exhaustion where your sleep is very heavy.

Then it's kind of cool to note you bodily sensations, how it reacts to eating/swallowing real food.

Also, your poos get interesting. I want to go on an apple juice fast because all that malic acid eventually (painlessly) releases gallstones. I want to see what they look like LOL!

I don't think I could do juice fasts D: Too much sugar in it, I'd go through the horrors of spiked blood sugar and then not being able to eat to stabilize it... but it's really interesting to know you can still get there while consuming calories. I will keep that in mind.

I completed a 12 day water fast earlier this year. It was my first time doing a longer fast. Previous to that my longest was only 3 days.

For the first few days the hardest part is not giving in to the idea of eating. I wasn't actually feeling that hungry but I did miss the social aspect of eating. After that all temptation of food completely disappeared. I would browse recipes, watch cooking shows and be sitting there watching and feeling for my reactions, and there was nothing. It was surreal.

There is a spiritual aspect, but I think that comes about because everything slows down...time, thoughts, emotions.. There was a feeling of pleasant calmness. The days seemed very long. In fact I started to force myself to sleep in more so that the days wouldn't seem so long... it was bizarre.

I ended the fast on day 12 because the last few days my blood ketones had started spiking through the roof (8.0+) and I could tell when it was doing that because I would start feeling.. slightly off.

I'd like to give it a go again, but i'm just not sure how to deal with the massive ketones levels after the first week... I don't think everyone has this issue with ketones levels, I think my body just loves pumping them out once I go 24 hours without eating. My DH doesn't have this issue. Like almost everyone on this board i love me a bit of n=1

Also electrolytes.. make sure you keep on top of that.

I would never encourage anyone to do a multiday fast because it is such a personal mental/physical/spiritual energy trial but I will give my little bit of experience if others are focused that way. You must listen to your body though.. our bodies are very intelligent entities. Stop if it's telling you to stop.

I don't believe there is one correct way of eating for everybody, and I don't believe there is one correct way of eating for a person through every stage of their life

I just posted this on another thread but I'll copy it here in case it's helpful to you....

I have a good bit of personal experience with fasting, I can share some of that and maybe you will find some of it helpful to you.

I've been practicing intermittent fasting for 15+ years, long before I'd ever heard about it, just due to my schedule and not feeling a great need to eat set amounts at set times. So I'd guess that my body is pretty good at burning fat. I've also done multiple 1-11 day long fasts. Some with just water and some drinking juice and tea. I usually feel pretty hungry for the first two or three days, and then the hunger feeling pretty much goes away. On day eleven of the one 11 day fast I've done, that hungry feeling came back quite strongly which is why I ended that one there. I had been shooting for 15 days. I did not have that experience with the previous 10 day fast I'd done, but I wasn't quite as lean then so that may have made the difference. But in general, unlike Neckhammer's experience, I feel great. Like better than normal, (this may very well have to do with my being a woman and not as lean as he is to start with) so maybe you won't be miserable the whole time. Not sure if you're a man or a woman, but either way, I think having some body fat when you start probably leads to feeling less bad.

I usually look and feel a little leaner when doing a long fast, but don't loose much weight. Maybe 2-8 pounds depending on the length of the fast, but that's kind of hard for me to measure as my weight normally fluctuates around in a 7ish pound range on a normal day to day basis. The very first time I did a really long fast (10 days) I might have noticed a slight weight gain afterwards, but I'm not even sure about that, again due to my normal fluctuation in weight. But most of the time, I jump right back into eating like a horse, which I've certainly heard is not recommended, but has never seemed to be a problem for me. And stay at the lower weight for a little bit, then gradually return to my normal weight. I'm female, 5'8", and weigh about 130 lbs. if I pick the middle of my normal weight range. So I'm not trying to loose weight and returning to normal is fine for me. If I wanted to keep it off I think it would be a bit hard, but may not be if you think you have weight to loose in the first place. I don't really know.

Loosing muscle mass I haven't really noticed. When doing crossfit the whole way through a long fast I tend to loose some endurance, but I don't know if it's really loosing muscle as the day I start eating again, it seems to go back to normal. But I am a woman and we usually have more body fat hanging around, so a man may start to burn muscle more rapidly?

I've fasted both before and after primal and did not notice much of a difference. But I think my body has been burning fat well for years now.

Hopefully some part of that you can find helpful as to what to expect, but I do think everyone's body is different. My opinion would be that if you're feeling fine now, continuing is going to be fine for you, but if you start to really feel awful, be willing to drop your goal. That is just my opinion. Good luck!

Been doing up to 50h once in a while. I don't think more than that is relevant. You truly enter starvation and stress hormones start to kick in seriously. A much easier way is to be on a mono-diet for a few days (like potatoes or rice only).